Let us only, for once, fuppofe, fo many fons of riot and debauch, hearing an elaborate, a pathetical declamation, upon the beauties and advantages of chastity and temperance ;-fuppofe them, admiring an accuracy of method, and elegance of fpeech;-a juftnefs of fentiment, ftrength of reafoning, neatness of compofition, propriety of gefture, a fymmetry and gracefulness, running through the whole addrefs; and suppose them on the very point of yielding to that united alluring force -until-oh!" tell it not in Gath"-they recol lect, that the orator himself was a companion once with them, in fuch a foolish ramble, or midnight debauch;-perhaps, that he has oftener-much oftener than once, been equally rakifh, and diffolute with themfelves: when how fhocking the thought! loofed from the bands which juft now conftrained and overcame them, they haftily conclude, that all was prieftcraft, on the one hand; and revery, on the other: whence, to the honour of the orator! they return, they return, not only with the dog to his vomit again, but, return--more hardened in wickednefs,-much more the children of the devil than they were.

The cafe, however, may be ftated in a milder, a lefs forbidding point of light; and yet, finful compliances, in church officers, with the world, appear most (hameful and pernicious.

Let the gay and the fashionable be fuppofed to hear the redemption and improvement of time recommended,--with all the combined energy of language, argument, manner, and addrefs; let the prefent influence of the harangue be intirely to your with one refolves, to quite the gaudy ring;-another, to relinquish the entertainments of the ftage; and a third, to abandon the bewitching amufements of game :-all-all is done in refolu

tion; but,-unhappily for them! difgracefully for him!--the preacher, the preacher, is no fooner remembered, than, like a bowing wall, and tottering fence, their lofty pile of refolved amendments, cracks, shakes, and falls. Is not this he, fays the firft, by whofe melody the sportive confort is often fwelled this the man, fays the fecond, who kills fo many hours at routs and cards?... and this the very perfon, fays the third, generally to be found in the gallery or box?--Yes, fay they all, the cheat is detected; the fpell broken; and our liberty to live like ourselves, at once reftored-For, was there any truth in the doctrine, would the doctor, himself, venture to facrifice fo much time, as he does, to the purpofcs of fashionable gaiety, and polite amufements?

To all this we may add, that office-bearers,, remarkable for one, or other, or all of the things reprefented, will, very readily, trouble the church, by the wrong application of their talents and learning; and the more pregnant the one, or extenfive the other, their capacity, of hurting the interests of the gospel, must be the greater. Though the truths of Chriftianity have never fhone with more fplendour and glory, than under the strongest oppofition they may have met with; yet, fuch oppofers, whether Chriftians or Deifts; whether of the clergy or laity, have, according to the degrees of their natural and acquired abilities, been troublers of the church of Chrift. The voluminous works of a Bellarmine; the eloquent performances of

his

* ROBERT BELLARMINE, a Tufcanite, entered into the fociety of Jefuits in 1560, and was made a cardinal by Clement VIII. in 1599. He wrote a body of controverfies, and compofed commentaries upon the Pfalms, fermons, and feveral moral and devotional tras. See Dupin's church hift. vol. IV. P. 273.

his co-temporary du Perron; the writings of a Shafts bury †, a Bayle ‡, a Bolingbroke §, a Tindal, a Taylor, and numberlefs others, foreign and domestic, antient and modern, fhow to what wretched purposes parts and erudition both may be employed; and fhow, that, in proportion to fuch prostitution of their talents, men trouble the church, and run the awful rifk of bearing their judgment. Which brings me to the

II. Thing in our method, To fhew, namely, in what views, the excifion of fuch office bearers may be wished and prayed for by Christians.

Under the Old Teftament difpenfation, excision was a penalty annexed to various crimes, and executed with fuch rigour, that the apostle counted the

JAMES DAVI DU PERRON, a Frenchman, not inferior to Bellarmine for learning, greatly before him for eloquence. He was an apoftate from the reformed religion, and became the more bigotted for popery. Henry IV. made him bishop of Evreux, and he was made cardinal in 1604. He wrote a large controvérfial treatise concerning the Eucharift, and feveral French poems. See Dupin's church hift. vol. IV. p. 273

ANTHONY Lord SHAFTSBURY, famous for the Characteristics which go by his name.

Monfieur BAYLE, author of a large hiftorical dictionary.

$ Lord BOLINGBROKE, author of letters on the fludy of history.

Mr. TINDAL, author of Chriftianity as old as the creation.

Dr. TAYLOR, of Norwich, author of a commentary upon the Romans, etc.

The last a Socinian; the other four most probably Deifts.

the ceremonial law an unbearable yoke, Acts xv. 10. The famous Selden informs us, that the Jews reckoned up thirty-fix different crimes, which were punished by excifion. It is, notwithstanding, difficult, according to that great mafter of the Jewish learning, to say precisely what the punishment of excision among them was; for, though it is agreed, upon all hands, to be the cutting off of a perfon from his people; the Rabbins, fays he, fpeak of three different kinds of excifion, which were inflicted, according to the degrees of a perfon's guilt, or aggravations with which it was attended. One kind of excifion affected the body only, and confifted of an untimely death; another, the foul only, and confifted of its utter extinction; and the third kind of excision, say these Rabbins, affected both foul and body, being a compound of the former two *. But it is eafy to fee, how little regard fuch rabbinical stuff merits, and how lit tle dependance upon thefe opinions is to be had.

What Paul might here intend by excifion, is neither certain to us; nor, perhaps, would his wish refpecting the falfe teachers at Galatia, though never fo well known, be a proper original for our imitation. As an infpired perfon, or under prophetical influence, the apoftle could fay, "He that

troubleth you fhall bear his judgment, whofoever he be," Gal. v. 10. but did not fay whether it would be temporl, or spiritual, or eternal: only, from the warmth of his zeal, as well as from his diftinguished conformity to the will of God, he expreffed, in the words of our text, his hearty appro bation of the threatened judgment, and defire of its paffing into the execution: he expreffed, indeed, that approbation, and this defire, by a term no lefs familiar

* See dictionary of the Bible, on the word excifion.

familiar to the Judaizing teachers, than frequent in the Old Teftament fcriptures,-but then the precife quality, extent, and duration of the judgment referred unto, is, by no means, condefcended upon; and, therefore, we will not fo much as pretend to guefs at it.

The learned, amongst Christian commentators, view the punishment under confideration in different lights. Some of them, indeed, have been fo ludicrous upon the fubject, that their fentiments would hardly comport with the gravity which be comes this place *: what, however, amongst their opinions, feems most probable, will be taken notice of afterwards; and therefore, to prevent repetitions, fhall now be paffed over.

With regard to the original word †, we will only now obferve, that, as cutting off is its proper fignification, fo the verb, to which it belongs, is always uled, in the New Teftament, to exprefs the fevering of one thing from another; or the diffolution of an union that previoufly took place. It is poffibly a metaphor borrowed from the practice of amputating luxuriant branches from a tree, or mortified limbs from a body: thus we find the verb used once and and again by the evangelist Mark, chap. ix. 43, 45. and again by the evangelift John, chap. xviii.

10.

Having paved our way, by thefe preliminary obfervations, it remains that we condefcend on the particular views, in which the excifion of unworthy office-bearers may be wifhed and prayed for by Christians.

1. Then, Chriftans may wish and pray for the

* Vide Poli Synopf. Critic, in locum. Alfo Whitby's paraphrafe on this text. + Apocopfontai.

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excifion